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"Framing Mist ninja is one thing, but why drag innocent Leaf ninja into it to die?"
The rumors spread like wildfire and reached Danzo's ears.
"What the hell?"
Danzo frowned, confused.
After listening a little longer, the truth hit him.
"Aren't these the same old rumors we already buried? Why are they back?"
"Mist sent suicide squads to hit Leaf?"
"Human bombs?"
"They'd rather die than stop hurting us?"
"So Mist must've been set up by Leaf?"
"Bullshit! Total fucking bullshit!"
Danzo was seething.
"Where are these idiots coming from? Just because Mist lost people, everything they say is suddenly true?"
"Nothing in this world is that simple."
"Didn't we lose people too?"
"If dying lets you say whatever and make it fact, then when my Shimura clan lost so many in the Uchiha rebellion, does that mean everything we said back then was gospel too?"
"This is just Mist's scheme!"
"Mist doesn't want to own what they did."
"They're trying to smear Leaf and me."
"Leaf shinobi believing Mist instead of me? Falling for their trap?"
"Stupid. Completely fucking stupid."
A Root ninja spoke up.
"Lord Danzo, some people in the village are defending you."
"Show me."
"Yes, sir."
The Root operative handed over the file.
Danzo read it. At first he smiled, satisfied. Then his expression darkened, worse than before.
"Lord Danzo did it all for the village."
"Back then Leaf had just driven off Rock. If we stayed allied with Mist, we'd have been forced to fight Sand together."
"But why should we?"
"We'd already done more than enough for Mist."
"And they stole our Byakugan."
"So Lord Danzo came up with this plan."
"All for the village!"
The defense was technically on Danzo's side, but he wished the idiot had stayed quiet. The accusers had only been doubting. This "supporter" made it sound like Danzo had actually done it.
"This wasn't me. I never pulled anything like that!"
Veins bulged on Danzo's forehead.
Exactly as he feared, once the supporter spoke, the accusers piled on even harder.
"For the village? Nice excuse."
"So anything goes as long as you say 'for the village'?"
"This is framing! Betrayal!"
"What about honor? Trust?"
"After this, who the hell is ever going to ally with Leaf again?"
"Even if we had to cut Mist loose for the village, fine. But why kill our own innocent shinobi?"
"They didn't have to die."
"What were their lives worth?"
The supporter's voice dropped.
"Sacrifices are necessary for the village."
"Only then does it feel real. Only then does Leaf have a solid reason to break the alliance."
"Leaf's reputation stays clean."
An accuser snorted.
"And now? Is Leaf's reputation actually clean?"
A figure arrived at the Hokage Tower.
Hiruzen saw Minato and already knew why he was there.
"Minato."
"Hokage-sama, I have a question I need answered."
"About Danzo?"
Minato nodded.
"Hokage-sama, was that plan Lord Danzo's? Did he control Mist Anbu to attack our Leaf ninja?"
Hiruzen didn't answer right away.
"I've already heard the rumors about the Mist attack."
"These rumors exploded once before. Sand printed them in their paper without checking and caused us a lot of trouble."
"That's why I asked Homura to start the Konoha Weekly."
"This thing has massive reach."
"Leaf needs one too."
"Unfortunately it's not working out great yet."
"Homura probably needs more time and events to get it right."
Minato agreed about the paper.
"The Basilisk Scroll is a damn good story. A lot of people read Sand's paper just for the next chapter."
"But writing something that strong isn't easy."
"I checked out Konoha's version too."
"By the way, Hokage-sama, what do you think of Jiraiya-sensei's writing? He loves novels and loves writing them. If he ever got serious, he might actually produce something solid."
Hiruzen's face darkened and he waved both hands.
"Forget Jiraiya. Just… no."
"Understood."
Hiruzen turned serious.
"Minato, if I told you that incident really was Danzo acting for the village, what would you do?"
Minato was quiet for a moment.
"Hokage-sama, I know how close you and Lord Danzo are. I know everything he's done for the village. But I'd still believe that kind of act is wrong."
"If it really was Lord Danzo, I'd arrest him and put him on trial under village law."
Hiruzen smiled.
"Minato, that's exactly why I have such high hopes for you."
"Even when it's for the village, some principles can't be thrown away."
"But the truth is, it wasn't Danzo. It was the Mist who did it."
"No one knows why they chose that moment, but the facts are clear."
"Leaf had no part in it. We were just the victims."
"Rin's death had nothing to do with Danzo."
When Minato passed the words to Kakashi, the silver-haired jonin was resting in the courtyard on a lounge chair, soaking up the sun. His injuries weren't fully healed yet, so he'd been given time to recover.
Kakashi didn't notice the figure standing just outside the wall as he muttered the sentence over and over.
"Rin's death had nothing to do with Danzo? Sensei Minato… you disappoint me."
...
The moment the Mist suicide attack on Leaf ended, Rasa watched the system panel explode with points. In seconds it rocketed past three thousand.
"Thirty consecutive draws. Start!"